Science, State, Justic, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 16, 2005)

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Amendment offered by Mr. Markey:

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

TITLE VIII--ADDITIONAL GENERAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 801. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used in contravention of the following laws enacted or regulations promulgated to implement the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (done at New York on December 10, 1984):

(1) Section 2340A of title 18, United States Code.

(2) Section 2242 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (division G of Public Law 105-277; 112 Stat. 2681-822; 8 U.S.C. 1231 note) and any regulations prescribed thereto, including regulations under part 208 of title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, and part 95 of title 22, Code of Federal Regulations.

The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the order of the House of June 14, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) and a Member opposed each will control 7 1/2 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. And in that 1 minute, I will say that I appreciate very much the statement by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf). Even when he is not physically present, he is a huge spiritual presence in this Chamber when it comes to the issue of human rights and torture, and I appreciate his willingness to support this amendment.

The amendment, quite simply, says that the United States, because of our support for the convention against torture, because of our support for the Geneva Convention, cannot condone the United States, after we have prisoners in our possession, sending those prisoners to other countries in the world that do not abide by the convention on torture, that do not abide by the Geneva Convention.

So this amendment will make it unambiguously clear that that is a responsibility that the United States takes very seriously, and notwithstanding what goes on at Guantanamo, that when the United States has possession of a prisoner that we will not outsource torture, that we will not actually put these prisoners on planes and send them to countries which we know do engage in torture.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the remaining time.

I urge the House to embrace this amendment unanimously. It is wrong for the political, military and moral leader of the world to be taking prisoners which we have captured, putting them on planes, blindfolding them, drugging them and sending them to Syria, sending them to Uzbekistan, with the sure and certain knowledge that those prisoners are going to be tortured by countries that have already been condemned by the United States for those practices. That is wrong. It undermines our position in the world. It gives al Qaeda more ammunition to put up on al Jazeera that undermines our moral leadership.

Vote ``aye'' on this very important amendment.

The amendment I am offering today simply reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the Convention Against Torture by prohibiting the use of funds in contravention of laws and regulations promulgated to implement the Convention Against Torture. The U.S. signed this treaty under President Reagan, and the Senate ratified it in 1994.

The House voted overwhelmingly to approve an identical amendment that I offered to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill on March 16, 2005 by a vote of 420 to 2. That amendment, however, only applied to funds appropriated in the Emergency Supplemental. The amendment I am offering today would apply to all funds appropriated for fiscal year 2006 to the Departments of State and Justice.

I am offering this amendment today because despite our commitments under this treaty and the statements made by the Administration emphasizing that the U.S. is emphatically and unambiguously against the use of torture, reports keep growing of the U.S. sending detainees to countries where they are likely to face torture, including to countries notorious for human rights violations. This practice, known as ``Extraordinary Rendition,'' amounts to nothing more than Outsourcing Torture.

In order to meet its obligations under the Convention Against Torture, the Administration has been engaging in a piece of legalistic fiction. It obtains ``diplomatic assurances'' that the transferred detainee will not be tortured, and then based on these assurances it argues that our obligation under the Convention Against Torture has been satisfied because there is no longer a substantial likelihood that the person we are sending to one of these known torturing countries will, in fact, be tortured.

This is a sham. If Uzbekistan, a country that has actually boiled prisoners to death says they will not torture a prisoner, can we believe them? If Syria, a country that Secretary Rice says we cannot trust, says they won't torture--can we believe them?

Syria has broken off all relations with U.S. military and CIA. What does this mean for the ``diplomatic assurances'' we received from Syria?

Here is what the State Department's annual human rights report says about Syria's methods of interrogation: administering electrical shocks, pulling out fingernails, forcing objects into the rectum, .....

In Uzbekistan, hundreds of protesters were recently killed under the corrupt regime of President Karimov in what human rights groups are calling a massacre.

Last year former Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to certify that Uzbekistan had met its human rights obligations. Why?

Because the State Department found that Uzbekistan used the following interrogation techniques:--``suffocation, electric shock, rape, beatings, and boiling prisoners to death .....''

The amendment I am offering today prohibits the use of any funds included in this bill to the contravention of our legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture, U.S. Law, and regulation. While I would have liked to include language barring the use of diplomatic assurances as the basis for renditions, I have not done so today, out of recognition that such an amendment would go beyond the scope of this bill and constitute new legislation. But what we can do today is take another step by having the U.S. Congress reaffirm that it does not support or condone torture, or rendition to countries likely to torture an individual.

Throughout United States history we have encountered and defeated brutal enemies, inhumane and monstrous dictators and met with hideous violence. We take pride that even as our Nation fought for its survival against the Nazis and the Japanese Empire during World War II, that we did not ask our ``Greatest Generation'' to engage in torture or other war crimes. The legacy of the U.S. then, and now, is that we uphold our commitment to justice in the face of shadows of terror and war. The test of a nation is found as much in how it wages war as how it promotes the values of peace and democracy. That is what we must to today.

I urge you to vote ``yes'' on this amendment, and say ``no'' to torture.

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